There is a reason we return to Faulkner all the time. While much of that is to gather more evidence of his domination and influence on the craft of writing, upon close reading, he creates images.
In the late 1800s, maverick artists were following the visually challenging process of small brushstrokes used in Impressionism with even smaller and more uniform dots. Georges Seurat and Paul Signac began applying the technique in 1886. Strangely, Pointillism as we know it today, was once seen as an insulting classification to their works. The simplest image like the beach in Georges Lemmet's "Plage à Heist" is a wash in various colors and the "rhythmic" look thanks to Pointillism. The mixing of the various primary colors actually appears as a blinding white on the canvas.
Using a lesser-known Faulkner work (yet still important as the beginning of the Snopes Trilogy,) the author draws a family portrait that emerges from the page far from daguerreotype-ish black & white. As Faulkner carefully allows us to wade through the historic waters of "rich-river bottom country" of Frenchman's Bend, he is mindful to maintain that this was a once-palatial estate that even exceeded its boundaries on paper. While that recorded deed has "faded," the once gloriously rich and arable land has "since reverted to the cane-and-cypress jungle from their master had hewed them." No part of the past is more important in Faulkner than the land and its uses in his mythical Jefferson/Yoknapatawpha state. It is there to be conquered, and here in "The Hamlet" it is interested in returning to its original form.
Those who tame it like Will Varner have systematically accrued land and their valuable deeds over time. Even as Varner is seated in his homemade "empty flour barrel" chair (not even close to a throne,) he knows that he is just one faulty decision away from seeing more of this fabled land return to the jungle. So like Pointillism and its carefully processed dots, Faulkner must grant us a vision of the characters and their surroundings. So he summarizes the end of the famous Frenchmen's Bend, spells its lineage in familiar family monikers, and shows us the original passage of time.
They took up land and built one- and two-room cabins and never painted them, and married one another and produced children and added other rooms one by one to the original cabins and did not paint them either, but that was all. Their descendants still planted cotton in the bottom land and corn along the edge of the hills and in the secret coves made whiskey of the corn and sold what they did not drink. Federal officers went into the country and vanished.
It could have been more eloquently constructed and worded (as Faulkner as narrator is apt to do.) However, the rhythm of the changes and how the "shared life" was maintaining shared lives is eminently more important.
Varner plays a key role in "The Hamlet," he is the reflection of this motif. When yet another family moves into one of his properties to grow corn to pay for their small farm, we understand through Varner that every season demands more growth. As Faulkner grants us a piece of Varner's family history (Varner has fathered sixteen children now "scattered from El Paso to the Alabama line") it is even more indicative of the seasons of life being more important. So it is understandable with all these properties and their use on his mind, he and his caretaker son Jody might slip up and accidentally let in the wrong element.
The agents of chaos are the Snopes family. Itinerant, close-quartered, and recalcitrant, Varner is drawing up the contract for them to use one of his plots of land before he hears rumors about how they left their last domicile burning down like Nero in Ancient Rome. Any interactions between Varner and any Snopes family member are cold and almost acts of avoidance. For example, after the Snopes take the cabin/property, Varner sees how little work they have done on the land after moving in and has trouble concealing his simmering anger by using his general voice.
The backstory on the Snopes and their previous venue could be debated as slightly comedic. For one thing, we do not hear the story from either party involved, but rather from the county's traveling herald/tribune, sewing machine/salesman Ratliff. Ratiff's secondhand gathering of details is where Faulkner becomes a practiced, general storyteller. First, Faulkner makes certain that we readers know Ratliff is trustworthy ("retailing from house to house the news of his four counties with the ubiquity of a newspaper and carrying personal messages from mouth to mouth.) Suppose Faulkner tells the Snopes story with his broad brush and beautiful verbiage. Then we are likely to be separated from its central truth (or loss of it) leaving us immediately ready to dismiss key elements as embellished. So, in the hands of Ratliff, this stays very much a front-porch passed story.
The Snopes are by no means colorless, but they are not colorful either. The Varners are almost identical in their veiled pursuit, but we see that they must keep to themselves. Faulkner as Ratliff gives us the tale of the Snopes and the De Spains with pinpoint accuracy right down to using the vernacular. We can hear him recall information, intertwine names and relations, and conclude his portions with the most savory bites of information (When the wagon stops outside of the De Spain's cabin/property for hiring, Ab, the eldest of the Snopes family, "looks at it and says, 'Likely it ain't fitten for hawgs." These are three levels of storytelling in play, and like the primary colors analogy, they must stay the correct size, hue, and rhythm.
Ratliff catches up to speed with some humorous insertions. When the wagon arrives at their new home, "Miz Snopes" and her widowed sister do not move. With all of their earthly belongings needing to be loaded in, "Ab turned round and cussed them...He druv them out like a pair of heifers just a little too valuable to hit with a stick." Uncouth, definitely. (As always, there is a language warning.) However, it is a necessary means of moving the story along and making it slightly amusing. Needless to say, like all good comedy, there is a misunderstanding that leads to many more and before you know it the De Spains and the Snopes are no longer very neighborly. When this disagreement gets to be too...incendiary:
"I don't know as I would put it just that way," Ratliff says to Varner. "I would just put it that that the same night Major De Spain's barn taken fire and was a total loss."
Later on after Varner's first tense interaction with the Snopes family on his property, Varner is riding home on his horse, he encounters the son Flem Snopes away from the cabin. Taken aback by his ghostly presence and surprised by this strange occurrence, Varner is caught off guard to say the least. So after some tenuous but friendly conversation (mostly originating from the usually reticent Varner,) Varner offers Flem - a cigar.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New music this week by Mik Davis at T-Bones Records
While we eagerly await the midweek (January 8th) release of the latest Ethel Cain (still affected by the slowly evolving/unfolding dark origami of the emotional single "Punish"), there are a few major releases.
RINGO STARR - Look Up [LP/CD](Lost Highway/Universal) // The legendary Beatles drummer worked with T-Bone Burnett on a Nashville/Countrypolitan album of Pop songs with Country flourishes. Ringo's familiar below actually fits well into Burnett's backwards gaze, especially thanks to the pedal steel of Greg Leisz. With support from Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and Larkin Poe, "Look Up" clearly aims for the AAA/Americana target. However, the simplicity of "Thankful" is best as it uses Alison Krauss' high harmonies to make Starr sound sincere.
MOONCHILD SANELLY - Full Moon [LP/CD](Transgressive) // South African helium-singer/'Future Funk" rapper Moonchild Sanelly should have broken through to the mainstream on 2022's stellar "Phases." At the height of Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj, her spinning wheel of strident but fun Hip-Hop fit right in ("Demon"). Three years later, Hip-Hop is a whole new bag. "Full Moon" throws back to M.I.A's "Kala" (sharing a producer even as "Big Booty" shows) and rarely matches her energy. "To Kill A Simple Girl (Tequila)" is carved out to function as a club banger and give Sanelly a chance for different voices and even flows. Yet, it does not, preferring much like "Full Moon" to play it too safe. "Phases" was audacious and showcased her range, "Full Moon" just pins everything on your wanting her unique vocals and surrounds it with prototypical dancefloor music.
FRANZ FERDINAND - The Human Fear [WHITE LP/CD](Domino) // As their signature song "Take Me Out" approaches the major benchmark of one billion Spotify streams, Franz Ferdinand make a new record that seems to care less about how they once sounded. "The Human Fear" tries to sound more like their idols Sparks and the once-dominant Art Rock of 10cc, but you cannot help but hear their influence (the Strokes-ian vocals and "jump" on "Audacious") Alex Ralph's layered production is generous to Kapranos' witty words and the Seventies Pop thrust of tracks like "Night or Day." "The Human Fear" is wildly mature in its content (and occasionally tries to be too clever, but that is an occupational hazard for these Glasgewians) and excels when it plays around with the riffs, as opposed to just another band of elders playing around the riffs.
JOAN ARMATRADING - How Did This Happen and What It Does Now Mean [LP/CD](BMG Artist Mgmt) // In an age where women singer/songwriters were very rare, Britain's Joan Armatrading crossed a lot of lines to become one of the first to earn worldwide recognition post Carole King's "Tapestry." In 1976, after years of contractual issues, her self-titled album earned her critical praise and a pair of classic singles in "Love and Affection" and "Down To Zero." However, Armatrading has never stopped working. "Happen" showcases her still powerful voice, clever writing, and even guitar work on two instrumentals. In addition to these, Armatrading plays and programs everything here. While it is wise not to revisit older sounds, her echoing voice and the acoustic guitar strikes on "I'm Not Moving" are a bold choice for an artist celebrating her 21st album.
ZZZAHARA - Spiral Your Way Out [LP/CD/CS](LEX UK) // Best known as the guitar player for Eyedress, Zahara Jamie has released a couple of albums of grainy but effective shoegazer-ish bedroom Pop. "Spiral Your Way Out" is the closest Zzzahara has come to straight-ahead Indie Rock yet. His chiming guitar and the lovelorn double-tracked vocals on the Nineties-ish "Wish You Would Notice (Know This)" are miles away from his sound with Eyedress (or any other projects) and indicative of a Mk.gee-meets-Nineties Alt. blend of his own.
